I absolutely love hanging my laundry to dry on a line outside. The advantages of line dried laundry are enormous. I dry everything on our laundry line, with except towels. I got too many complaints… and references to sandpaper.
These are some reasons I have fallen in live with line drying my laundry:
1) Line dried laundry requires less ironing than laundry dried in a machine. I am able to hand press twill and jeans while they are wet, and the breeze does the rest.
2) Line drying laundry saves money. Say my dryer costs about .50 an hour to run. For our family, I average 15 loads of laundry a week and my dryer runs about an hour per load. So weekly, my dryer bill would be 7.50. That is not terrible. But 7.50 a week times 52 weeks in a year is $390. Add in a few more loads for swimming, illness and spring cleaning for another $100 or so. And we have spent about $500 a year on drying clothes.
3) Nothing compares to the smell of outdoor fresh. It lingers on sheets and clothing for several days. Outdoor air naturally removes orders and freshening clothes.
4) Line drying is a very gentle method of drying clothes. If I miss treating a stain in the first wash and drying, line dried items are far more forgiving that those baked in a hot dryer. Line drying does not use heat as much as air for drying. So, clothes do not shrink. Clothes are not tumbled around a small barrel for hours, but pinned up and dried in a gentle breeze. Breeze drying does not stretch and pull the fibers of garments, and extends their life and color.
5) Line drying brightens clothes and bleaches out stains naturally. I learned early on in motherhood that milk and baby poop stains on clothing are impossible to remove without the aid of sunshine. How often I have put a stained baby dress in the sun to dry, and the stain disappeared. The sun has removed or faded a lot of stains from my laundry pile.
6) Line drying is therapeutic. Busy days of motherhood need their reprieves. It helps clear my mind to step outside for a few minutes to hang up laundry.
7) Line drying is quiet. When I am not using the laundry line, there is a steady hum and knocking throughout the day as my dryer tumbles clothes. It is not a bad sound, but the silence in the laundry room without a loud machine, is also sweet.